1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing anonymous telephone communication.
2. Description of Related Art
Current computer network communications permit users to communicate with one another anonymously. For example, on-line service providers allow users to connect their personal computer (PCs) together and anonymously communicate with one another. On-line service users can elect to enter different "virtual rooms" which are places in which users can connect to within an on-line service in order to communicate with other users who have done the same. On-line service features such as text "chat" take place in these virtual rooms where users can send text to one another. On-line service virtual rooms are also known as "multi-user dungeons" or MUDs.
The users chatting in these virtual rooms identify each other by an ID such as "BOB44" that is arbitrarily assigned by each user. Thus, while messages between users may be identified by the ID, no other identification is accessible to any of the users. Hence, all the users in a virtual room remain anonymous while participating in meaningful communication.
Current technology does not provide anonymous communication beyond text messages such as described above. If two users in a virtual room desire to increase the level of their communications beyond text messages, they must choose to reveal their real identities or actual telephone numbers and use other communication methods such as calling each other over the telephone network or meeting each other face to face. However, these methods force the communicating parties to lose their anonymity. Thus, there is a need to provide anonymous communications beyond text messages currently available via on-line services and the Internet.